29 pages • 58 minutes read
Gary PaulsenNightjohn
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 6-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Nightjohn lays in the quarters for three nights, and on the second, teaches Sarny her next letter—H. Mammy encourages the lesson this time. Nightjohn explains that he’s planning to run, and Mammy isn’t surprised. He makes shoes out of rawhide and uses lard and pepper to throw the dogs off his scent. On the night Nightjohn plans to run, he tells Sarny he’ll be back—but she knows it’s a lie.
Chapter 7 Summary
Nightjohn escapes successfully, indicated by Waller’s angry return after a two-day chase. Sarny is happy for Nightjohn but wants to learn more letters. She knows A-J and makes words in her head as summer turns to fall. She eventually reaches puberty and hides it, worried about being discovered and forced to work in the fields—and as a breeder. One night in winter, Nightjohn comes to the quarters and tells Sarny to follow him to school. Sarny travels farther from the quarters than she ever had, into an area thick with trees. Nightjohn leads her into a sheltered area of brush, and inside, three torches burn—revealing seven other people. This is a school organized by Nightjohn; he’s been teaching the alphabet to people from other plantations. Nightjohn holds up a catalog and asks Sarny to help teach the others, as she knows more letters than they do. When Sarny sees the beautiful items in the catalog, she starts to cry. Then, she spots a word she knows: “bag” (89). She reads its printed form for the first time and traces the letter A in the dirt for the other students.
Epilogue Summary: “Words”
Sarny writes a poem-like description of Nightjohn: He walks at night, his tracks identifying him as they lack middle toes. None of the slave owners know he comes, but the workers do. He comes and teaches “the way to know” (92).
Chapter 6-Epilogue Analysis
Nightjohn’s escape stands in stark contrast to Sarny’s stories of failed attempts in Chapter 4. He is the first slave to escape the plantation successfully, and this gives the other slaves cause for celebration and hope—emotions that are otherwise in short supply. Nightjohn’s success is due in part to his ingenuity in throwing Waller’s dogs off his scent with lard and pepper, a trick that speaks to this escape not being his first. When tells Sarny he will return, she has no reason to believe him. Yet, Nightjohn does, shocking Sarny and reinforcing how much he values education.
Gary Paulsen briefly mentions the changing seasons to show the passage of time during Nightjohn’s absence. When Sarny reaches puberty, she lives in fear of being discovered and forced to work as a breeder. When she thinks about the future, all she sees is a life of imprisonment and forced labor. Knowledge is the only part of her life that offers hope and respite. Even while Nightjohn is away, Sarny continues to retain her knowledge; she constantly thinks about letters and makes words with them in her mind, emphasizing her natural thirst for knowledge and capacity for learning. Paulsen also shows how much learning means to Sarny when she cries after reading her first word—“bag”—in print. He highlights the value of education, showing young readers that those with easy access to education often take it for granted. Nightjohn’s secret school is held at night, deep in the forest, in a rough patch of bushes. Although the school is crudely formed and inconvenient to attend, it means everything to Sarny.
The epilogue, “Words,” explains how John received the nickname Nightjohn. It is poetic, make use of repetitive, short phrases like “Late he come walking” (91) and “We know” (92) to create a flowing, lyrical tone. Furthermore, the phrase “We know” (92) is used to highlight the slaves’ newfound access to knowledge and the slave owners’ lack of knowledge regarding their slave’s activities. This final poem shows that Sarny did in fact learn to read and write, and is now using her knowledge to recount her story. This prompts the reader to realize that Sarny has been narrating-writing the story from the start. Paulsen highlights the power of being able to share one’s history with others, as it is only through Sarny’s writing that later generations can know the truth about slavery and learn from the past.
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